JOYFUL WORDS
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Speaking
  • Writing
  • Hospitality
  • About Sheri

A Hole In My Vase

7/23/2017

1 Comment

 
…and you gave your children good ground for hope that you would permit repentance for their sins.  Wisdom 12:19

What are some of the things in this life that you can just count on?  Many things in life are fluid but there certainly are things that always stay the same; it gets light in the morning, little kid giggles evaporate a bad mood and snakes scare the snot out of me are a few of my constants!  We can count on lots of things and one of those “sure things” I find great comfort in is the never-ending mercy of Jesus.  He will always love us and forgive us…his mercy is so much bigger than our sin; no two ways about it.  We all love that thought but there is a little something that goes with his mercy that we sometimes breeze by; repentance.

Repentance  isn’t a word we toss around over coffee or a cocktail  too often but it’s sure an important word.  The definition of repentance is “ sincere regret or remorse”.  It can make us a little uncomfortable because in order to repent, we have to really stop and process what we’ve done wrong and thats really NO fun at all.  We do everything fast, including this step of the forgiveness process.  Sometimes the word regret is used jokingly, like when we refer to wearing a half a can of Aqua Net hair spray on our hair in the 80’s or shoulder pads that made us look like we were headed for a tryout with the Detroit Lions in our teal green rayon dress.   But when we’re talking about regret, repentance and the mercy of Jesus, it takes on a whole new meaning.

Last spring I had a bouquet of flowers in the prayer corner.  They were arranged in a pretty glass vase that I’ve had for a long time.  It was the end of the day and one of the middle lovelies accidentally hit the vase of flowers with his backpack.  He set it back up on the shelf and we moved on like nothing happened. The next morning the flowers looked a little wilted so I got a pitcher to add water to the vase and I was shocked when the water came  pouring out of the vase as fast as I could pour it in.  It seemed that there was a big chunk missing from the back of the vase so the water just went right from the top through the hole in the back.  I laughed and found the piece of glass under the edge of the carpet. It wasn’t until recently that I realized what a great lesson that vase had to teach.

Mercy is like the water I was pouring from the pitcher.  It comes without measure, without end and without cost.  Jesus just loves us so much he showers us with his mercy endlessly.  We are like that vase with the missing chunk.  I could have stood there and poured water all day but it would have done the flowers no good because they were not prepared to hold on to and receive the benefits of the water as long as they were in that broken vase.  In order for that water to be nourishing and life giving, it had to have a vessel ready to receive it.  When we sin, and are in need of the Fathers mercy, we have to be ready to receive it in order to be blessed by it’s life giving benefits.  If we don’t repent, we can’t fully receive mercy.  If we demand the Fathers mercy but don’t express regret or sorrow and a desire to change we can’t experience the mercy that helps us  grow in  holiness.  It took time, energy and money to purchase all the different flowers that I put in that arrangement, I sure didn’t want them to wither and die without trying to care for them.  Jesus feels the same way about us times a million!  I had to get my container right.  It took time and I got hurt when I cut my finger on the jagged glass, but it was worth it when I saw those flowers perked up and restored to their original beauty.  Truly repenting about our sinfulness can be uncomfortable and sometimes even painful but it’s the only way to prepare our hearts to receive.  I hope you’ll find a few quiet minutes this  week to get your container right so you can receive the life-giving mercy of Jesus.

A Seed To Plant:  Ask the Father to help you  make a list of the things in your life that require repentance on your part.  After you’ve prayed about that list, ask him to show you how to prepare your heart to fully receive his mercy.​

Blessings on your day!
1 Comment
Barb
7/24/2017 09:53:46 am

What a beautiful way to realize our need for forgiveness and to receive our peace and blessings of our Lord. Thank you for sharing. Blessings to you and yours.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Joyful Words magnet picture

    ​Click on the items below to expand the options available to you to explore the Joyful Words blog.

    Categories

    All
    1 Corinthians
    1 John
    1 Thessalonians
    2 Corinthians
    Acts Of Love
    Advent
    Ageing
    All In
    Amazing
    Anxiety
    Armor Of God
    Asking For Help
    Bad Habits
    Balance
    Baptism
    Be
    Beauty
    Being Gracious
    Blessed Mother Teresa Of Calcutta
    Blessing
    Blessings
    Brokenness
    Carry Our Cross
    Catholic Education
    Change
    Changes
    Cheerfulness
    Children
    Choices
    Christian Belief
    Christmas
    Colossians
    Commitment
    Comparisons
    Compassion
    Consistent
    Content
    Contentment
    Courage
    Crosses
    Crumbs
    Dad
    Daughters Of God
    Delight
    Desire
    Desire God
    Details
    Dicipleship
    Die To Self
    Discipleship
    Dissapointment
    Dying To Self
    Easter
    Ecclesiastes
    Education
    Election
    Encouragement
    Enemy
    Ephesians
    Evangelization
    Exodus
    Expectations
    Faith
    Faithfulness
    Falling Short
    Family
    Fathers Love
    Fear
    Flag
    Footstool
    Forgiveness
    Fresh Start
    Friendship
    Fr. Mike
    Fr. Mike Schmitz
    Galatians
    Generosity
    God In Everyday Things
    God In Scripture
    Gods Beloved
    God's Enough
    God's Forgiveness
    Gods Gifts
    God's Guidance
    God's Love
    Gods Love
    God's Plan
    Gods P Lan
    God's Restoration
    Gods Strength
    God's Timing
    Gods Timing
    Gods Ways
    God's Will
    Gods Will
    Goodness
    Good News
    Grace
    Grandma
    Grandpa
    Gratefulness
    Gratitude
    Greatness
    Gretness
    Grief
    Happiness
    Healing
    Heart
    Heaven
    Hebrews
    He Chose Me
    Holiness
    Holy Spirit
    Holy Thrusday
    Holy Thursday
    Holy Week
    Hope
    Humble
    Humility
    Identity In Christ
    Intimacy
    Isaiah
    James
    Jeremiah
    John
    Joshua
    Joy
    Judgement
    Justice
    Kids
    Kindne
    Kindness
    Labor
    Laughter
    Lent
    Lessons
    Light
    Listening
    Little
    Love
    Lovelies
    Luke
    Mark
    Marriage
    Mary
    Matthew
    Meekness
    Mercy
    Mom
    Mornings
    Mud
    Obedience
    Openness
    Parenting
    Parentng
    Patience
    Peace
    Pentacost
    People
    Perseverance
    Perspeceive
    Perspective
    Philippians
    Pioneers
    Pleasing God
    Poor
    Porch
    Positive
    Possibilities
    Pray
    Prayer
    Priorities
    Promises
    Proverbs
    Psalm
    Relationship
    Religion
    Respect
    Romans
    Sacrifice
    Sacrifices
    Sainthood
    Saints
    Samuel
    Scripture
    Seeking God
    Service
    Serving God
    Signs
    Silence
    Simple
    Sin
    Sinfulness
    Slow Down
    Small Stuff
    Steve Ray
    Stillness
    St. Mary's 4th Of July
    Strength
    Stress
    Suffering
    Surprises
    Surrender
    Temptation
    Thanks
    The Right Thing
    Time
    Troubled Times
    Trust
    Trust In God
    Truth
    Understanding
    Unravelled
    Valentines
    Waiting
    Weddings
    Word Of The Year
    Words
    Works Of Mercy
    Worry


    ​Archives

    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012


    Back to Home

    RSS Feed


      HOME                        BLOG                       SPEAKING                        WRITING                        HOSPITALITY                        MEET SHERI  

CONTACT: 989.640.6673
Picture
EMAIL

FACEBOOK

Twitter

Content is the intellectual property of Sheri Wohlfert 2017
Created by dhengesbach
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Speaking
  • Writing
  • Hospitality
  • About Sheri